Minestrone Soup
Starter:
1 block Salt Pork
6 bay leaves
1 cup dices onions
½ cup diced celery
1 cup dried pink beans
2 quarts water
Finely chop the salt pork, or run it through the food processor. In a large pan, saute the salt pork, onions and celery until translucent. Add the water and the bay leaves and cook this over medium low heat for 4 hours. Add the pink bean and let sit overnight. Next morning, cook the mixture for about an hour. Add more water if you need to. Once the beans are tender, use your food processor or hand blender if you have one, to thoroughly puree this mixture. I make this in larger batches and keep it in the freezer or can it so I can make soup quickly and easily.
The Soup
4 diced red or white medium potatoes
½ bag baby carrots
½ cup sweet onion
1/4 cup parsley
1TBS dried parsley
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
Any other vegetable that sounds good
Olive oil
1 qt chicken stock
½ cup small shell pasta
1 cup chopped spinach
Starter
Parmesan cheese
Saute the onion in olive oil until translucent. Add the chicken stock and all the veggies except the spinach and pasta. Cook about 15 - 20 minutes until the veggies are nearly tender, then add the spinach and shell pasta, cook until the pasta is al dente (chewy) and add the start. Heat all this back up, taste to see if it need salt, very unlikely. Keep an eye on it, should be very thick. You can thin it with more chicken stock if needed. Serve and top with Parmesan Cheese. This is a meal for sure.
